Starting from March 28, Amazon Echo models that previously had the ability to process Alexa requests locally will no longer do so. Instead, these voice recordings will be sent to the cloud for processing. This change was confirmed by an Amazon spokesperson to The Verge after a Reddit user raised awareness about it through a public service announcement on Friday, along with a screenshot of an email they had received from the company. The affected Echo models include the Echo Dot (4th Gen), Echo Show 10, and Echo Show 15.
According to the email shared on Reddit, users who had previously enabled the ‘Do Not Send Voice Recordings’ option will have their settings automatically changed to ‘Don’t save recordings.’ The email further explains, «This means that, starting on March 28th, your voice recordings will be sent to and processed in the cloud, and they will be deleted after Alexa processes your requests. Any previously saved voice recordings will also be deleted.» This change comes shortly after Amazon introduced Alexa+, which incorporates generative AI capabilities into the assistant. Amazon had announced during a February event that Alexa+ would begin rolling out in early access this month.
In an email to customers regarding the discontinuation of the local processing option, Amazon stated, «As we continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud, we have decided to no longer support this feature.»
This article was initially published on Engadget at .
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